Jasmine Garsd

If you think it's strange that we pay homage to David Bowie on Alt.Latino this week, think again. Bowie has had a tremendous fan base throughout Latin America, and he's been a strong musical influence. His talent was so great, and his work so diverse, it left few musical ...

It's wintertime, and we're all a little chilly and in need of vitamin D. This week on Alt.Latino, we feel a ray of sunshine in the form of Anastasia Tsioulcas, one of NPR's finest music reporters.

Anastasia specializes in classical music, but also has a passion for hunting down fresh ...

It's that time of year when we review our favorite music, and as always, it was difficult to narrow it down to a handful of songs. One recurring theme in 2015: Whether it's Li Saumet from Bomba Estereo or up-and-coming singer Kali Uchis, it's been a fantastic time ...

"El Almohadon De Pluma" (The Feather Pillow), written in 1905, is a classic of Latin American literature. Uruguayan author Horacio Quiroga tells the tale of Alicia, a newlywed who begins mysteriously and rapidly losing weight. Soon she's bedridden with severe anemia. The doctors are perplexed. She dies in no ...

This week on Alt.Latino, we explore the deeply intertwined roots that connect Jewish and Latin music.

Professor Josh Kun teaches at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He's researched music history extensively, and he joins us to spin some awesome old records, including Celia ...

There's a place in the city of Tijuana, Mexico, called El Bordo, which has always been somewhat reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic movie scene. The name comes from "the border," which is where it's located: right by the fence that separates the U.S. from Mexico, among the enormous paved canals that ...

Pocahontas had nothing to do with the first Thanksgiving. She died in 1617, four years before the celebration in Plymouth.

Neither did Malinche, her Mexican counterpart, who lived in the 1500s.

But I've been thinking about both women on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. They were part of the ...

"The refugee has got to be checked because, unfortunately, among the refugees there are some spies, as has been found in other countries." It could have been said today about the Syrian refugee crisis, but those words belong to President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1940.

Back then, many of those refugees ...

On this week's episode of Alt.Latino, Felix Contreras and I discuss how different our musical tastes feel at times. Sometimes, we seem to come from virtually opposite head spaces: Felix will be chilling on a Jamaican beach, listening to reggae love ballads, while I'm off listening to hip-hop at some ...

As immigration to the U.S. shifts from Mexico to Central America, more Mayan speakers find themselves stuck without translators in the court system.

Soledad O'Brien's name is synonymous with committed, in-depth journalism on topics that don't always receive such treatment in mainstream media — topics like race and poverty in America.

But who is the woman behind the reporting? O'Brien's own life is fascinating: full of stories about the challenges and triumphs on ...

Once a year, to celebrate Day Of The Dead on Nov. 2, we ask listeners and friends for stories of loved ones they've lost — with an additional request for music to remember them by. We then build a sonic altar to celebrate those who are no longer here and ...

Back in 2009, the devil walked up on Audobon Ave in New York. She wore beer cans as hair rollers and red leather shorts, and was mocking hot Caribbean boys who asked for her phone number. The devil's name was Natalie Yepez, or Maluca, which means "bad girl" ...

The week she turned 15, Rosi got an amazing birthday present. She was in a government shelter in New York.

And then her dad walked in. It was the first time she'd seen him in almost four years.

"He brought me a big cake as a present. It was vanilla," ...

You know how it goes: Your friend forgets his cell phone at a haunted house, and you have to go with him to retrieve it. Happens all the time to Felix Contreras and me.

So here's our super-scary mixtape to listen to while you you run away from demons, hide ...

It's been a year since thousands of unaccompanied minors surged into the U.S. In the schools of Oakland, Calif., such children were seen not as a burden but as a challenge.

This week on Alt.Latino, we feature artists who showcase their musical talents in indigenous languages from Mapuche to Tzotzil, Guarani and Quechua. These young musicians — from Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala and Mexico — defy industry norms that say singing in Spanish or Portuguese is the only way to get ...

Telenovelas' standard plots grew stale and viewership was down. Then networks led by Telemundo in the U.S. began producing more realistic and lurid series. And it's working, Telemundos ratings are up.

Shortly after NPR's team of journalists — Kelly McEvers, Encarni Pindado and I — arrived in El Salvador to report on how young women are being affected by gang violence, we received a grim phone call from a local colleague who knew about our assignment.

He told us a ...

Warning: Some of the depictions and images in this story are graphic.

Violence is rampant in El Salvador. In the month of August alone, there were 900 homicides. That's a daily average of 30 murders in a country with a population of 6.3 million — less than New York ...